编者按：为了更好地进行中国文学海外传播工作，让中国作品在海外被发现（Discover）、被理解（Understand）、被传播（Express），中国文化译研网（CCTSS）邀请国内资深文学主编及文学评论家，精选出近两百部短中长篇小说，形成第一期《中国当代文学作品指南》（简称“指南”），从更具权威性、价值性的角度出发，更好地向世界展示中国当代文学精品，传播中国书香。

夏读书，日正长，打开书，喜洋洋。现将“指南”中的精品文学作品以一日一推的方式向读者呈现，让我们不负一夏好时光。

王安忆丨《长恨歌》

推荐理由

关于《长恨歌》，洪子诚曾有这样的评价：“《长恨歌》写生活在上海弄堂里的女孩子王琦瑶四十年的命运浮沉，她的经历联系着这个都市的特殊风情和它的变化兴衰。这部小说‘生长’在这样的时刻：上海再次融入跨国市场资本主义的全球潮流；上海的旧时代的故事被重新发现和讲述；也同时发现曾经讲述上海的张爱玲；颓废、繁华之后的凄凉——又开始成为令许多人着迷的美感经验。”《长恨歌》中的王琦瑶是典型的上海弄堂的女儿，借由对王琦瑶一生命运起伏的呈现，作者为我们展现了上海文化的精神内涵。小说所描写的历史跨度是从二十世纪四十年代到八十年代。四十年间，中国大地上历史风云变幻，诸如解放战争、新中国建立、三大改造、改革开放等等，然而，在王安忆看来，这一切都不是社会的芯子，社会的芯子是王琦瑶们柴米油盐的凡俗生活。正是通过对这种鸡毛蒜皮的日常生活的描摹，王安忆抓住了上海文化的本质，无怪乎她会被视为海派文学传人。

Reviews

Hong Zicheng, a famous literary critic, once made the following reviews about The Song of Everlasting Sorrow. “This novel traces vicissitudes of life of Wang Qiyao, a girl born of the longtang, for 40 years. Her life is connected with the city’s unique charm and its rises and falls. This novel ‘grows’ at such a juncture when Shanghai rejoins global trend of multinational market capitalism. Tales of Shanghai in old days are rediscovered and retold as is Eileen Chang’s stories. (Eileen Chang was another writer famous in the 1940s who also set her stories in Shanghai). Moreover, lingering desolation after decadent pleasures and sumptuousness is again being taken by many as aesthetic experience.”

Wang Qiyao in The Song of Everlasting Sorrow is a typical Shanghainese girl living in the longtang. Through depicting ups and downs in her life, the writer interprets to us spiritual connotations of Shanghai culture. During the time span covered by this novel, mainly from the 1940s to the 1980s, China witnessed constant change of events, such as the People’s Liberation War, the founding of the People’s Republic of China, socialist transformation of agriculture, handicraft industry, capitalist industry and commerce, Reform and Opening-up, and so on. Nevertheless, it seems to Wang Anyi that none of these are the core of society. The real core of society is the secular bread-and-butter life led by those like Wang Qiyao. It is by this depiction of trivialities in daily life that Wang Anyi grasps the very nature of Shanghai culture, so it is little wonder that she is considered a successor to the Shanghai School of literature and art.

作家简介

Author Profile

王安忆，1954年3月生于江苏南京，原籍福建省同安县，现代作家、文学家、中国作协副主席、上海市作协主席、复旦大学教授。1970年，初中毕业后赴安徽省蚌埠市五河县农村插队。1972年，考入徐州文工团工作。1976年发表散文处女作《向前进》。1980年入中国作家协会文学讲习所学习，1983年参加美国爱荷华大学国际写作计划，1987年调上海作家协会创作室从事专业创作，2004年受聘复旦大学中文系教授。

著有中短篇小说集《雨，沙沙沙》《流逝》《小鲍庄》《尾声》《荒山之恋》《海上繁华梦》《神圣祭坛》《乌托邦诗篇》等，长篇小说《黄河故道人》《流水十三章》《纪实与虚构》《长恨歌》《匿名》等。其中《本次列车终点》获1981年全国优秀短篇小说奖，《流逝》《小鲍庄》分获1981—1982年、1985—1986年全国优秀中篇小说奖，其作品在海内外都有较大影响。1996年发表个人代表作《长恨歌》，获得第五届茅盾文学奖。2004年《发廊情话》获第三届鲁迅文学优秀短篇小说奖。2013年获法兰西文学艺术骑士勋章。

《长恨歌》是王安忆的长篇代表作之一，1995年发表于《钟山》杂志，获第五届茅盾文学奖，并且入选20世纪中文小说100强。小说展现了王琦瑶跌宕起伏的人生传奇，亦呈现了上海这个大都市从四十年代到九十年代沧海桑田的历史变迁，被誉为"现代上海史诗"。以本小说改编的同名电影于2005年上映。

Wang Anyi was born in Nanjing on March 6, 1954. Her ancestral home is Tong’an County in the southeastern province of Fujian. The daughter of the writer Ru Zhijuan and the playwright Wang Xiaoping, she moved to Shanghai with her mother Ru Zhijuan in 1955, also attending elementary school there. After graduating from middle school in 1969, she was sent to Wuhe County in Anhui, where she lived and worked as part of the Toupu Commune. In 1972, she entered the Xuzhou Song and Dance Cultural Troupe in Jiangsu, where she became a performer. She became an editor at Childhood, a Shanghai-based magazine affiliated with the China Welfare Institute, in 1978. In 1987, she joined the Shanghai Writers Association as a professional writer. She began working at Fudan University in 2004 as a professor in the department of Chinese Language and Literature. She is currently the chairperson of the Shanghai Writers Association and the vice-chairperson of the China Writers Association.

In 1980, Wang took part in the fifth Literary Training Institute held by the China Writers Association. Three years later she went to Iowa University with her mother to participate in the school’s International Writing Program. She took part in the City Writer Program held by the Taipei city government’s Department of Cultural Affairs in 2002, and in 2007 she attended the thirtieth seminar of modern literature held at Cambridge.

She began publishing her writing in 1976. Among her written works are the short stories and novellas And the Rain Patters On, Lapse of Time, Baotown, Coda, Love on a Barren Mountain, Dreams on the Sea, and Utopian Verses. Her novels include, People of the Yellow River, Thirty Chapters on Flowing Water, True Reports and Fabrication, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow, and Anonymous. Wang’s works have received multiple awards. Among them, The Destination won the National Short Story Prize in 1981; Baotown received the 1985-6 National Novella Prize; The Song of Everlasting Sorrow was awarded the fifth Mao Dun Literature Prize; and Confidences in a Hair Salon won the third Lu Xun Literary Prize.

Wang’s works have been translated into many different languages, including English, French, German, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Dutch, Vietnamese, and Thai. In 2011, she was nominated for the Man Booker International Prize. She was admitted to the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2013.

中文概要

Synopsis

上海的弄堂天然地带有暧昧不明的颜色，这里充满了人间烟火气与肌肤之亲般的性感，这里盛产流言，也于嘈杂中藏有娇嫩纯洁的闺阁。王琦瑶便是典型的上海弄堂的女儿。吴佩珍是王琦瑶的好友，她表哥在片厂工作，为讨好王琦瑶，她带着王琦瑶去了片厂玩儿。从这以后，片厂便一度成为她们常常搭伴前去的地方，她们渐渐与导演混熟了，导演便让王琦瑶试镜，然而试镜却失败了。但这次失败经历却给了王琦瑶另一个机会。在导演的推荐之下，王琦瑶到程先生的照相馆拍了照片，后来有一张被选为《上海生活》杂志的封二照片，这让王琦瑶成了女校的名人。不久便有照相馆来找王琦瑶拍照，她的照片被陈列在橱窗前，并题为“沪上淑媛王琦瑶”。学校里想与王琦瑶结交的同学多起来，蒋丽莉便是其中之一。在参加了蒋丽莉的生日晚会之后，她便与蒋丽莉成了好朋友。

不久，上海要选举“上海小姐”，在程先生和蒋丽莉母女的帮助下，王琦瑶进入复选，并凭借一身白色婚服夺得了“上海小姐”第三名。程先生是早对王琦瑶有了好感的，但却羞于开口，好在有蒋丽莉在，他们三个便一起看电影、吃饭、参加晚会。不料蒋丽莉对程先生生出好感，让三人陷入了情感纠葛中，也毁掉了两个女人的友谊。在王琦瑶看来，程先生仅是一个垫底的备选，于是在有权势的李主任出现后，王琦瑶便跟了李主任，住进了李主任租下的爱丽丝公寓里，成了交际花。然而李主任是大忙人，回公寓也未有定期，王琦瑶便也只能守着寂寞度日。这时，程先生因没了王琦瑶的音讯而失魂落魄，蒋丽莉却从母亲那里听来了王琦瑶做了“女寓公”的消息，这让程先生和蒋丽莉谈了一段短暂的“恋爱”。一天，好友吴佩珍来到王琦瑶公寓道别，此时她已为人妻，她马上要去香港了。一九四八年的中国，时局紧张，李主任乘飞机罹难，王琦瑶却毫不知情。

为避乱，王琦瑶回到了老家邬桥，在这里认识了一个叫阿二的少年，阿二向往上海繁华的世界，便离开邬桥，没了消息。阿二的离开也勾起了王琦瑶对上海浓烈的怀念，于是她便也离开邬桥，回到上海，住进了平安里。王琦瑶在护士教习所考得注射执照，在弄堂里挂了牌子给病家打针。严家师母常到王琦瑶这儿，因两人都不是庸常的弄堂人，便惺惺相惜时常走动了。一次，王琦瑶在严家师母家里见到了毛毛娘舅康明逊，决定改日做东在家里请他俩吃饭。吃饭那天，康明逊还带来了一个中俄混血的朋友萨沙，因有陌生人在，他们打麻将便都有些不自在。萨沙倒是没什么拘束，这晚之后便常常到王琦瑶这儿打牌，有时下午不打牌也跟着康明逊寻王琦瑶。不久这四个人便玩得好了，时常聚在王琦瑶这里喝下午茶、吃饭，王琦瑶与康明逊也暗生情愫，发展起地下恋情。但这段感情注定是没有什么结果的，严家师母、包括康明逊家里都一定不会同意康明逊与王琦瑶这样的女人结合。也因此，严家师母与王琦瑶有了隔阂，不常走动了，康明逊也受到来自家庭的压力与王琦瑶分了手。而这时王琦瑶已怀了康明逊的孩子，她本想利用萨沙把孩子做掉，而几经延宕最终她决定留下这个孩子。

一九六〇年，王琦瑶又见到了程先生，程先生依然独身未娶，他便主动照顾怀孕的王琦瑶。而蒋丽莉现在做了国家干部，和纱厂军代表结了婚，已有了三个孩子。三人再次重逢，而世事早已沧海桑田。不久，王琦瑶诞下女婴。听说王琦瑶生了，严家师母便也动了恻隐之心，又与王琦瑶来往起来，康明逊也来看望。可怜程先生尽心照顾王琦瑶，却得不到她的心，于是便不再到弄堂里打扰王琦瑶了，而是嘱托蒋丽莉常去照顾王琦瑶。康明逊与王琦瑶依然来往，但彼此都没有了往日那么浓烈的爱意。程先生则逐渐与朋友们断绝了来往。

一九六五年，王琦瑶突然找到了程先生，原来蒋丽莉生了恶瘤，将不久于人世。蒋丽莉的婚姻并不幸福，丈夫是个大老粗，与她并无多少共同语言。病中的蒋丽莉依然为他们的“三角恋情”而纠结伤心。一周后，蒋丽莉脾脏破裂，大出血而死。一九六六年，文革大潮席卷而来，程先生因爱好摄影，被批判为情报特务，他不堪其辱，自杀身亡。

一九七六年，王琦瑶与康明逊的女儿薇薇已十五岁了，母亲更好看，女儿则拥有青春，这母女俩并不是那么合拍，处处都要较劲。与薇薇要好的是一个叫张永红的女孩子，她有着极好的审美天性，而张永红与王琦瑶竟渐渐觉得相见恨晚，经常在一起论衣谈帽，这两个女人之间也免不了有摩擦与较量。张永红走马灯似的换着男朋友，薇薇也学着张永红交了男朋友。

各种舞会逐渐流行起来，张永红的新男友小沈经常组织家庭舞会。有一次，舞会邀请了王琦瑶，而舞会的举办地竟是爱丽丝公寓，王琦瑶重回故地，感慨颇多。薇薇的男朋友小林考中了大学，王琦瑶因为信任小林，便拿出金条让他到银行换钱，三人一起到杭州旅游。但遗憾因为一些小事，王琦瑶又与薇薇起了冲突。这年圣诞节前后，小林向薇薇求婚，王琦瑶忙着给女儿置办嫁妆，春节，薇薇便与小林成婚了。婚后不久，小林便要到美国读书了。一年多后，薇薇也出国陪读。

一九八五年的一次派对上，王琦瑶结识了老克蜡，这老克蜡不爱新潮而偏爱复古与怀旧。之后的几次派对上，他们又见了几次，这便渐渐相熟起来，在接触往来中，老克蜡对王琦瑶产生了情愫，王琦瑶却有些抗拒。王琦瑶家如今又聚集起人了，而且大多是年轻人，当然常客还是老克蜡、张永红和男友长脚。命运似乎在捉弄人吧，起先老克蜡要，而王琦瑶不要，没多久他俩便调换了位置，王琦瑶已难以从老克蜡给他的感情中抽身了，而老克蜡却已厌倦了王琦瑶。为了挽留老克蜡，王琦瑶甚至愿意奉献自己的全部家当，然而老克蜡却是义无反顾地要离开了。一夜，王琦瑶办了派对，想让老克蜡来，老克蜡却始终未现身。派对结束后的深夜，长脚起了歹心，重又返回到王琦瑶家里，他想偷些黄货（黄金），却被王琦瑶发现了。长脚本要离开，王琦瑶却要报警，长脚被逼急，拿走了王琦瑶装着金条的木盒，也失手将王琦瑶掐死。

The longtang of Shanghai intrinsically wears shades of implicit eroticism. It teems with touches of earthliness and sexuality of incredible intimacy. It is also the origin of flying gossip. Behind all the ruffle and hubbub lie lovely and virginal boudoirs. Wang Qiyao is one such typical Shanghai girl born out of the longtang.

Wu Peizhen, whose cousin works at a film studio, is a friend of Wang and she takes Wang to the film studio to please her. They often go to the studio together after that and get more acquainted with the director little by little. Wang is invited by the director to an audition but failed. She then gets another opportunity, however, because of this experience. The director recommends her to model for Mr. Cheng’s photo studio. One of her photos is chosen for inside front cover of Life in Shanghai magazine and she becomes famous in the girls’ school. Before long other photo studios want her to model for them and her photos are displayed behind show windows with the title “Shanghainese Lady Wang Qiyao”. More girls at school want to make friends with her and Jiang Lili is one of them. Wang and Jiang soon become good friends after Wang attends Jiang’s birthday party.

Shanghai holds the “Miss Shanghai” pageant before long. With the help of Mr. Cheng, Jiang Lili and Jiang’s mother, Wang enters the second round and eventually come to win the third place with a white wedding dress. Mr. Cheng grows feelings for Wang, but is too shy to say anything. Thankfully, Jiang Lili is always with them and they go to the cinema, dinners, and attend evening parties together until Jiang starts to, unexpectedly, have feelings towards Cheng. This leads the three young people to become entangled into romantic complications that end up ruining the friendship between the two girls.

Mr. Cheng, however, is just a fall-back spare tire for Wang. Therefore, when the influential Director Li comes along, she moves to Alice Apartment he rented as his lover and she quickly becomes a social butterfly. However, Director Li is always so busy that he returns to the apartment at no regular intervals. Wang has no choice but to live with her loneliness day by day. At this point, out of contact with Wang, Mr. Cheng is battered out of his senses and Jiang Lili hears of the fact through her mother that Wang is now a so-called “lover kept in secluded apartment”. This news brings Mr. Cheng and Jiang a brief relationship. One day, however, Wu Peizhen pays a visit to Wang’s apartment to bid farewell, for she is married and about to leave for Hong Kong soon. In 1948, China is in a rather tense political situation. Moreover, Director Li dies in a plane crash, while Wang is left totally in the dark.

To get away from all the chaos, Wang returns to her hometown Wuqiao. There she meets a young man named “Deuce”. Deuce yearns for the glitz and glamor of Shanghai. He later leaves Wuqiao and isn’t heard from since. This all in a way rekindles strong nostalgia towards Shanghai in Wang. Later on she leaves Wuqiao too. She goes back to Shanghai and moves into Ping’anli.

Wang receives a nurse injection certification at a nursing training center and starts to offer injection services to patients in the longtang. Madame Yan visits Wang often as they both enjoy different tastes from common longtang dwellers and therefore bond quite well. Once Wang meets Kang Mingxun, a cousin of Madame Yan’s, during a visit and decides to invite them both over for dinner the next day. Kang brings with him Sasha, a friend of his of both Chinese and Russian decent, who as a stranger causes some uneasiness amongst the group when playing mahjong. Whereas Sasha feels quite at home and often visits Wang for mahjong since then. During some afternoons, she comes over with Kang. Soon after these four people grow close and often have afternoon tea as well as dinners at Wang’s place. Wang and Kang eventually fall in love and start a secretive romance. However, the romance is bound to end in despair as Madame Yan and Kang’s family would definitely not allow Kang to marry a woman like Wang. As a result, Madame Yan has a falling out with Wang and no longer pays her any visits. Kang breaks up with Wang due to pressures from his family when Wang is pregnant with his child. Wang tries to get an abortion with Sasha’s help, but she decides to keep the baby anyway after some delay.

Wang meets Mr. Cheng again in 1960. He is still unmarried and offers to take care of her during pregnancy. Jiang Lili is now a government cadre with three children and her husband is a military representative to a cotton mill. The reunion of the three of them comes at a time when so much has changed. Before long, Wang gives birth to a baby girl. After hearing the news, Madame Yan turns sympathetic and resumes her friendship with Wang. With that Kang Mingxun also starts paying visits. The poor Mr. Cheng takes care of Wang dutifully with all his heart, but still fails to win hers. Because of this he often asks Jiang Lili to visit and look after Wang, while he himself stops visiting her in the longtang. Kang and Wang keep in contact, but without strong affections towards each other as in the past. Mr. Cheng, however, gradually cuts off all contact with his friends.

In 1965, Wang visits Mr. Cheng unexpectedly and informs him that Jiang Lili is dying of a malignant tumor. In fact, Jiang’s marriage is not a happy one. Her rough and uneducated husband doesn’t have much in common with her. Jiang, in sickness, still laments their “love triangle”. One week later, Jiang dies of massive hemorrhage caused by splenic rupture. In 1966, the Cultural Revolution sweeps through and Mr. Cheng is accused of being a spy because he loves taking photos. As the humiliation is too much to endure, he commits suicide.

In 1976, Wang and Kang’s daughter Weiwei is 15 years old. The mother is even more beautiful while the daughter is gifted with youth. They constantly compete with each other and do not get along quite well. Weiwei’s best friend is a girl named Zhang Yonghong, who has a great sense of fashion. Zhang and Wang regret not befriending each other earlier and it is fashion that Zhang frequently discusses with Wang. Between them, frictions and competitions are also inevitable. Zhang changes boyfriends fast, never committing herself to any of them for too long. Weiwei follows Zhang’s example and gets herself a boyfriend too.

Balls of all kinds come into fashion. Young Mr. Shen, Zhang’s new boyfriend, often organizes family balls. Once Wang is invited, only to find out that the ball is held at Alice Apartment. Back at the place, Wang is overwhelmed by sorrowful sentiments. After Young Mr. Lin, Weiwei’s boyfriend, gets admitted to a university, the mother and the young couple plan to travel to Hangzhou. Out of trust, Wang gives Lin some gold bars to exchange for some money at the bank. Regretfully, Wang again gets into conflict with Weiwei due to some trivial matters. Later on, Lin proposes to Weiwei around Christmas. Wang is busy with preparing dowry for her daughter since then. Weiwei and Lin get married during the Spring Festival and soon after that Lin goes to study in the United States. A year later Weiwei joins her husband there. 

Wang meets “Mr. Classic” at a party in 1985. He interests himself not in the latest fashions, but in old and nostalgic things. They meet a few times at parties after that and gradually get acquainted. Mr. Classic starts to have feelings for Wang, while Wang is somewhat resistant. Wang’s place is now again packed with people, and mostly young people. Frequent visitors, of course, are Mr. Classic, Zhang Yonghong, and her boyfriend “Mr. Legs”. 

Maybe human is indeed fortune’s fool. At the beginning, Mr. Classic wants Wang and Wang hesitates. Before long, however, Wang finds it impossible to live without his affections, but Mr. Classic is already tired of her. To hold on to him, Wang is even willing to give up all her fortunes, but he is determined to leave her for good. One night, Wang throws a party and invites Mr. Classic, but he never shows up. Late that night, Mr. Legs returns to Wang’s place to steal some gold, but is exposed by Wang. He tries to escape, but Wang threatens to call the police. Cornered and desperate, he strangles Wang accidentally and takes her wooden box containing the gold bars.